If there ever was a bottle to showcase the absurdity of the American Whiskey market in 2024, this is definitively it.
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The story of this bottle of Hatozaki Whisky, the third release in the brand’s Omakase series, begins with two aged rye whiskies sourced from two unnamed U.S. States.
Both aged ryes were then shipped to Japan, blended together and re-barreled into Japanese-native Mizunara Oak barrels for an undisclosed period.
Next, the blended spirit was bottled at 42% ABV in Japan and given a “Made in Japan” label per regulatory guidelines.
Finally, the batch of approximately 3,000 bottles were then shipped back over the ocean to be sold exclusively in the United States for a retail price of $95.
This is a symptom of the sickness we created.
It’s an inevitable outcome that happens when the American market develops an immediate and insatiable thirst for a product that, despite some interesting efforts to build shortcuts, still requires years of aging to produce.
As Forbes contributor Kate Dingwall calls out, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States stated that Japanese whisky imports into the U.S. increased from 18.4 million in 2015 to $67.4 million in 2020. That’s a 266% increase in just five years.
There’s just no way to increase whisky production that fast, so what options do spirit producers have to keep up with demand?
You read the answer to that question already, at least in the reality we live in today where national regulations on alcohol differ dramatically.
Japanese Whisky, in particular, has been notoriously ill-defined as a product category for a very long time, even though in recent years, the Japan Spirits & Liquors Makers Association has worked with its constituents to develop a tighter definition and more explicit labeling guidelines.
I don’t bring all this up because I’m some kind of purist who believes that a spirit can only be great if the entity that distilled it and blended it are the same.
After tasting lots of excellent non-distiller-produced (NDP) bourbons and barrel selections over the years, I’ve grown to appreciate the impact a master blender or talented picker can have on bringing a great-tasting whiskey to market.
That’s why it wouldn’t surprise me at all if Hatozaki Whisky‘s Omakase Rye was delicious in a way you’d expect a $95 whisky to be, or at the very least interesting given its unique combination of Rye and Mizunara barrel aging.
But I am concerned over what releases like this say about the road ahead for whiskey, especially if customer transparency remains an afterthought.
Maybe there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.
